Fresno County, California Biographies
Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)
History By Paul E. Vandor
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
JOHN W. JONES. � A hard-working, level-headed man, fortunate in
the devoted assistance of his wide-awake and excellent wife, and now a
successful rancher well on the way to an ample competency, is John W.
Jones, the owner of two ranches on Lincoln Avenue, near Fowler. They
have rebuilt their dwelling house on the home ranch, and have a neat and
attractive residence, to which their only child, a noble son just honorably
discharged from his country's service, came safely home from France.
Born on March 16, 1870, at Dunbarton, in Adams County, Ohio, John
Jones was the son of Jasper Jones, a tenant farmer, who married Mary Gray,
by whom he had four sons, our subject being the second. The father came
from Tennessee and the mother from Ohio, and both parents died in the
latter state. John is the only one to come to California, the other three
boys having remained in Ohio. John worked around on farms from his
seventeenth year; and when twenty-two he went to Peoria County, Ill.,
and worked there on farms. In that county too, in 1892, he married an
Ohio girl, Miss Emma Cornelius, and for twelve years rented a farm there,
after which he bought a small farm near by and worked it for the next three
years with success.
In 1906 Mr. and Mrs. Jones took the important step and came to Cali-
fornia, where Mr. Jones found work for D. S. McCollough near Fowler. At
the end of a year he bought twenty acres, but soon sold the same. In 1913
he purchased his present place of twenty acres, constituting the home farm,
one and a half miles north of Fowler ; and in 1919 he bought the second
twenty, half a mile west of the home ranch. His experience in farming,
together with that of his good wife, and their combined industry and thrift,
have made of the one ranch, and will be sure to make of the other, a pleas-
ing and inspiring sight to all interested in up-to-date farming.
The one living child spared to this worthy couple is Paul M. Jones, a
graduate of the Fowler High School and a member of the Class of '17. He
volunteered for active service in defense of his country, and enlisted at
Fresno on June 2, 1918, when he was assigned to Headquarters, Company
81, Light Field Artillery. He trained at Camp Fremont and Fort Sill, and
at Camp Mills on Long Island, N. Y. ; and on November 2, 1918, he sailed for
France on the Cunarder Aquitania, landing seven days later at Brest. From
that port he reembarked on January 4, 1919, and landed at Hoboken on
January 18, after which his regiment was demobilized at Camp Knox in
Kentucky. There, on the 19th of February he was honorably discharged,
and four days later he arrived home at Fowler.
Mr. Jones is a Republican, and as such works hard for an improved and
elevated electorate ; but he is broad-minded enough to put his shoulder to
the wheel, when it is necessary, and work for local improvements apart from
party affiliations. He and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian
Church at Fowler, and both stand for clean living and encourage worth-
while charities.